Trencher

A good trencher-man. A good eater. The trencher is the platter on which food is cut (French, trancher, to cut), by a figure of speech applied to food itself.

He that waits for another’s trencher, eats many a late dinner. He who is dependent on others must wait, and wait, and wait, happy if after waiting he gets anything at all.

“Oh, how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princesʹ favours;

There is, betwixt that smile he would aspire to,

That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,

More pangs and fears than wars or women have.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII., iii. 2.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.